A RTE using six benchmarks of the response in Chile in 2010.
On 12 January 2010, a devastating earthquake measuring 7.0 struck Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Oxfam launched its biggest humanitarian response of recent Latin America history in Haiti, mobilizing personnel / resources from the regional management centre and the humanitarian department in Oxford. Less than 6 weeks later, an earthquake over 15 times more powerful (8.8) struck central Chile. Within a few hours after news of the Chile earthquake, the regional centre had mobilized an assessment team from Columbia, Bolivia and Mexico to determine needs and look at possible response options by Oxfam. As Oxfam GB closed its country programme in Chile in 2009, these actions were done without the assistance of national staff or support systems that country offices traditionally offer start-ups of humanitarian programmes. How Oxfam responded to these dual challenges:
• launching a second emergency response in a region with limited humanitarian capacity; and
• starting up a response programme in a country without an established Oxfam country office;
and what are the lessons that have emerged during the first few months of the Chile earthquake response formed the background of the Real Time Programme Evaluation mission from 14-28 April 2010.
In relationship to the programme, the overall impression is that Oxfam’s earthquake response in Chile to date is a good WASH-focused humanitarian programme, staffed by highly competent individuals and supported by effective management. Although the programme seems to be effective at meeting the needs of vulnerable groups and has made a good effort at coordination, there were delays in procurement of WASH materials that have hampered a quick and timely response. It is the view of the RTE team that while some of these delays are the result of external circumstances, the programme team need to improve their activity plans and monitoring schedules to limit the impact of these delays.
